‘Inglourious Basterds,’ ‘Nine’ Lead Critics Choice Nominations

Two films win a record 10 noms from the Broadcast Film Critics Association; “Avatar” scores nine

“Inglourious Basterds” and “Nine” each won a record 10 nominations from the Broadcast Film Critics Association, the organization that hands out the Critics Choice Movie Awards.

Both films received numerous nominations in the awards’ new craft categories, benefiting from the recent expansion of categories from 17 to 25 to more closely mirror the Academy Awards.

Quentin Tarantino’s World War II film and Rob Marshall’s musical are among the 10 nominees for Best Picture. The slate also includes “Avatar,” “An Education,” “The Hurt Locker,” “Invictus,” “Precious,” “A Serious Man,” "Up” and “Up in the Air.”

Although “Nine” received 10 nominations, director Rob Marshall is not one of the six nominees in the director category, which includes Tarantino, Kathryn Bigelow (“The Hurt Locker”), Lee Daniels (“Precious”), Clint Eastwood (“Invictus”), Jason Reitman (“Up in the Air”) and James Cameron (“Avatar”).

“Avatar” picked up nine nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Cinematography.

Saoirse Ronan, the 15-year-old star of “The Lovely Bones,” received two nominations, one for Best Actress and one for Best Young Actor/Actress.

The BFCA nominations generally do a good job of predicting eventual Academy nominees, and this year the 10 Best Picture nominees match exactly with the top 10 in the Movie City News’ “Gurus of Gold” chart predicting Oscar nods.